holding ice blue cichlid

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rabbithearted said:
If I end up stripping her, how is this honestly done? Well...how have you guys done it? I mean I have read a few things but still a little nervous about that.
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I was actually kind of scared the first time I did it myself. I use a small mason jar (any large cup will work) and a small 3" fine net. Catch the fish in the net, and then grip her through the net with her head sticking out. Usually I just dip her head up to the gills into the cup full of tank water a few times and she'll spit on her own. If she doesn't seem to want to comply, I take a paperclip and use one of the round edges to hold her mouth open while I dip her. The hardest part is usually getting her mouth open with the paperclip.

At first I was worried that I'd be suffocating the mom holding her out of water, but the real worry for me is the fry. I'm not sure if it's more stressful for her to dip her continuously until she spits or to try for 20 seconds or so then let her rest in the net in the tank and try again after a short rest...

If you have a small fry basket like those floating guppy breeders or a Top Fin Breeder Net (about 6 bucks at petsmart) I'd suggest putting the fry in there before letting them free in the larger 15gal tank. It makes feeding much easier for the first week or so. I found today at the lfs a Marina brand "Hang On Holding & Breeding Box" that is just fantastic as I have several clutches of fry growing at the same time in my 20gal breeder/growout tank, with fish from 1.5" down to 1/3" all sharing the same growout. I was using several of the Top Fin nets but it made the daily water changes a real pain. This thing has it's own suciton tube that allows me to change 50% of the tank water and not having to touch the youngest fry at all. basically acts as a HOB filter run with an air pump that holds fish instead of filters. I highly recommend it if you start having multiple clutches or species breeding at the same time!
 
I gave up trying to make my Zebra, hap and Ice Blue spit. Now I wait and do it naturally. When taking them out, growing and reintroducing them I found they all got eaten pretty quickly. Since I decided to let them do it naturally I currently have around 25 2cm fry (various hybrids) occupying the many caves in the bottom of the tank. They seem to learn survival techniques much better if I just leave them alone!

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I actually reintroduced her to the tank again, she just seemed stressed being by herself and is now back to normal in the big tank. The other fish don't bother her at all, it's more her bugging them, the only one that will come up to her is the male albino ice blue. When she is in her teacup cave, he will squeeze in there with her and just sit there. He's a whole lot bigger than her and kind of fat, so it really is a squeeze but it's cute. But then she gets irritated and will chase him out of there or just move to another cave. I'm going to let her just release them on her own, unless it gets to the point where she's held them way, way too long or is getting to thin. Then I will step in and try and help. I just would rather let her do it on her own and allow them to be released in the larger tank, even if it means only one survives out of the group, I would rather her be comfortable.

He does continue to do his seizure shake dance like he's trying to attract her or another but no others are holding, so I think he's crazy or he's trying too early with her. The other cichlids are much, much smaller, besides my male OB peacock. So I don't think he would be trying to go for them.
 
rabbithearted said:
He does continue to do his seizure shake dance like he's trying to attract her or another but no others are holding, so I think he's crazy or he's trying too early with her. The other cichlids are much, much smaller, besides my male OB peacock. So I don't think he would be trying to go for them.
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This is what you need to be careful about. If there are no/few other mbuna females in the tank for him to 'show his affection' to, the male can and possibly will hurt/kill the female who's unwilling to mate with him again while she's still holding.
 
He was doing his dances when she was out of the tank as well, so maybe there are other females. I do have a red zebra in the tank with them and I think it may be female, and I think it is the one the albino is trying with, but they have been together for months now and the zebra has never been holding before. So maybe it isn't a female or she is just starting to mature. She's almost the same size as the holding female.

The attached photo is of the holding and this one together. The red zebra is honestly one of my most aggressive cichlids in the tank and has now become a lot calmer the last week or so. Photo is when I just had brought home the ice blue female.
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Her mouth has grown a lot in the last few days and you can see this black line/mark on the one side of her mouth where it is expanded. I am guessing that is them. She is on day 17, so it will be soon! Unless she decides to go all crazy and eat them while I am sleeping one night or something. But we will see. (:
 
'Go all crazy and eat them' or spitting them while you are asleep is all too common (from what I've read) in the first couple spawns. Maybe I was lucky with my Yellow Lab, but not so with my peacocks. Since this thread started, my Rubescent Clown that I told you earlier only had 5 fry survive (now 1/2"+ long), one of the Ruby Red females ate her first clutch after 4 days, and another Ruby Red has given me about 20 fry.

Does the female's belly look sunken at all? 18 days is about where I strip my fish out and it is the coolest sight to see this cloud of fish pop out of her mouth. I can understand your desire to see it happen naturally, but other than stripping I'm afraid that one day you'll wake up or come home and see her throat looking normal, and a few other fish fatter than normal, having never seen the fry. If that does happen, I wouldn't let it discourage you though. You've proven you have a breeding pair, and within a month (probably 2-3weeks) of her spitting these fry you can expect her to spawn and hold again.

Pics of fry if you get them!
 
She is back by herself again because the male was and still is spitting rocks out of an area bringing it down to the glass and kept swimming around here. So not wanting her to get stressed or hurt by him, I moved her by herself again and she is liking it much better this time. The first time she just seemed stressed. Her belly actually doesn't look too sunken. She was a pig before this when it came to food and would try and scare all the others away. that is the one thing I have been nervous about is her getting to skinny, at that point I would definitely try and strip her but as of right now she is still looking okay. Thinner but not enough to to be scary thin.

I honestly would be happy and excited if she only had one fry. But it's just nice to know that they are happy enough to breed.

Would the male still continue to clear the rocks, with no female in the tank? Because I think they are all males besides her, unless the red zebra is a female but he mostly nudges that one out of the way when he's swimming around the tank like it's always in his way. I am going to have to seek out a few other females just so I won't have to remove her from the tank if this happens again.
 
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